The Slaying Capacitance
by adenosinatri
Summary: Penny is a slayer - Sheldon becomes her watcher. Not on this chapter though . A trilogy. Crossover with Buffy the vampire slayer, obviously. Penny/Sheldon, eventually Spuffy.


**AN: **So, I feel that this story begs for a really extensive author's note, because you guys really need to understand where I'm coming from. Of course you can read the story and skip the note and that won't affect your enjoyment of the story at all, but for my own piece of mind I'd like to let you in on some things regarding the process of making this story.

The first idea for this came to me as I saw the February prompt by tapas_girl at the Sheldon/Penny livejournal community (yes, I hang out there waaay too often). It said _"Buffy: Penny is a potential and Sheldon ends up being her watcher to her dismay." _It doesn't happen like that from the beginning but it WILL get there - on the next two chapters. Besides this story is mostly for the Big Bang fandom (but it will have tons more of Btvs stuff on the next chapters).

I've never expected to write a crossover, honestly I rarely read them, but this story just hit me. The idea of Penny as slayer fits in my head, with the way she takes care of the geeks, and I'm also planning to use the slayer mythology as an excuse to get this couple together. The Btvs part that should come next is in progress, but I'm pretty set on where this story will go, so really I just have to find the best way to write it and it'll come.

On another note, I've made a few references to the newest Buffy comic books, even if I'm not really eager to consider them eight season canon. But since I'm working with the time set of The Big Bang Theory it should be quite a few years later on the Btvs world, giving me the opportunity to work with the character and situations of my choosing. If you're unfamiliar with the comics or with Buffy, it really won't harm your understanding of this story, or so I hope. Feel free to ask me any sorts of questions. Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy this story and jump aboard with me on the adventure. :P

* * *

Penny was finally beginning to doubt her sanity.

First there were the dreams. She wasn't much of a dreamer, well not in the sleeping sense of the word. Usually her nights were dreamless and black, or sometimes she would have these fuzzy, glossy pictures of things happening that were really important then, but that she couldn't remember upon waking up.

Nothing special had happened, at least, none that she recalled of, and yet, all of a sudden she started to have those semi-nightmares with strange monsters and strange fights and in each one of them she was a different girl, yet still herself. There was a lot of killing, and blood and quite frankly loads of teen angst. She really considered seeing a shrink about all of this. Or at least asking Sheldon to help figure it out. She hated to admit it, but the geek seemed to know everything about everything. Surely he could help her sort out some dream issues. She put the glass she had been cleaning back on the shelf at the Cheesecake Factory bar and shook the thought away. It was better to just ignore the dreams. They'd go away. It probably had some stupid Freudian explanation regarding how she didn't feel loved enough from her father. Whatever.

She looked up from the counter and noticed her four nerds entering the restaurant. Leonard was the first one to see her and he smiled widely and happy, and she felt really bad that she couldn't show more excitement when seeing him. She needed to work on that. After all, what were all those acting classes good for anyway? Then Sheldon noticed her as well and she couldn't help but smile at the slightly terrified look he had when he noticed that their usual table was already occupied. Howard and Raj were set out on a debate which she guessed had something to do with hitting on the two hot blonde women at the end table down the left corner. But Leonard just tapped their shoulders and hurried them all over to the bar to greet her.

"Hey guys, what can I get you today?"

"Well a cleaner bar counter would be nice." She just glared at him and chose to ignore, it was just Sheldon being Sheldon.

"Sorry, that's not on the menu. Anything else?"

Leonard nodded and ordered drinks for all the guys, including Sheldon's "Virgin Cuba Libre". Penny was just finished serving them when her manager called her to the storage room. She handed her apron to one of the other waitresses and went to see what it was about. Apparently, Gale, her manager was having trouble with the beer cases. Penny eyed him for a second. His skin was deeply pale and he had freckles everywhere matching the red hair on his face. Despite his late twenties, he was still coping with a bad acne case on his face. She would have taken him for a nerd if she had never met the boys.

Unlike them, Gale was kind of dumb and had no interest in comic books or science fiction. Seriously, does a guy like that ever get laid? Scratch that - how does a guy like that even makes it to manager? But as she felt bad for thinking these mean things, she quickly agreed to help. The truth was that there weren't many guys working at the Cheesecake Factory, a fact which Penny attributed to the sexist approach to waitering, where the pretty girls were meant to serve the men and families, and attract the costumers with their overall hotness. But down in reality that usually meant that when it came to carrying heavy stuff, it was a pain.

Gale was in no way physically enhanced. She liked to imagine random people in fights, so she had dreamed up a fight between him and Sheldon, thinking her nerdy physicist friend had a far better shot. Out of all the waitresses, she stood out with her Junior Rodeo acquired physical strength, so she was the obvious choice on the carrying-beer- cases business. She went to pick them up and found them to be surprisingly light. She was pondering on why Gale hadn't been able to pick them up himself, and just how weak was he? That was when a lot of things happened all at once.

For some bizarre reason, Sheldon had come down to the deposit and just as he opened the door, she looked up to the ceiling and noticed the archaic chandelier was swinging loose. Opening the door must have trigged it down, or something, because when he did and proceeded to carelessly approach her, the chandelier went down. Right on his head.

She wasn't even sure how she had moved so fast or what made her move in the first place, instead of just standing there like a silly, scared person. Instead she tossed down the beer case and jumped Sheldon to the floor, lying on top of him, her back facing his torso. While the smell of barley filled the room as the bottles exploded on the floor, she held her hands up and caught the potential murder weapon in the air. She shouldn't have been able to. It should have been immensely heavy. She would feel her arms breaking in a second, she was sure. She saw as some other girl, someone that wasn't her, used her hands to lay down the chandelier, the 9 feet diameter, pure wood, probably 60 pounds of weight chandelier, on the floor next to the recently formed beer puddle. Then the girl turned to Sheldon, still underneath her. He looked scared stiff and seemed to be at a loss of words.

"Are you okay?" Penny felt herself come back. She looked at Sheldon, his innocent face torn with fear, his mouth struggling to form coherent words. She couldn't help but feel protective towards him. He was much like a child; a tall child, with an extremely developed brain, no ability for emotional connections and an amount of quirks that would scare most specialists off his case. But she wouldn't be scared off, it was suddenly very clear to her that whatever she did, she had to protect Sheldon. He needed her.

Before Sheldon could answer her, Gale cut off her wonderings.

"Penny, what the hell are you doing? Those beers are coming out of your pay check! Get someone to clean this up, now!"

Boy, for a kid that skinny and absolutely not menacing-looking, Gale sure knew how to project his voice. Maybe that solved the mystery of how he'd come to manage the place. She got up and took Sheldon's hand to help him do the same. He looked down on her, clearly trying to hold on to some sort of pride. But she noticed he didn't jerk away from her hand immediately.

"I'm fairly well, Penny. Thanks to you, I assume." She smiled. He turned to Gale.

"I'll provide payment for your lost beverage, this incident was my fault after all."

Gale seemed to calm at that.

"Sounds fair."

"What? No, sweetie, it wasn't your fault, I'm okay."

"Penny, not very long ago, I believe you were experiencing financial difficulties. I don't see how this would make things less difficult. And on another side, I believe I'm on a debt of life with you, as of this moment."

She would have been bothered by him mentioning the financial difficulties business, hadn't it been for the whole "You save my life and now I owe you" crap.

"Come on, Sheldon, don't be ridiculous, it was nothing."

He protested, of course.

"It was far from nothing, Penny. In fact I'm certain, with an approximate calculation of the speed in which the chandelier was falling, and dividing the distance between it and myself by such speed, had you not jump in at that precise moment, the consequences for me would have been certain death. I don't think I would've been able to recover from such head blow."

"But…"

"Don't worry," he held one hand up to her face. "I understand that paying for the wasted beer bottles shall not be sufficient reciprocation. Perhaps, I should…

"Do you two love birds, mind? People have work to do here. _Penny_ has work to do here. And one of you is definitely paying for the beers and the chandelier, and you sir, what are you even doing here? This is for authorized personal only! Tell me, are you authorized personal?"

Geez, Gale, PMS, much? It was just a stupid chandelier and cheap beer, why was he making such a big deal out of this? And why did he call them love birds? What was up with that? He did make a good point, though, what was Sheldon doing there?

"What ARE you doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious? I came to solicitate your waitressing services, for I was not satisfied with our current waitress, your colleague."

"That's it?"

"Did you expect a more convoluted reason?"

"You couldn't just wait a few minutes?"

"Penny, I asked her to disinfect my glass with the product I had packed on and she…", he sighed. "She laughed."

Penny chuckled slightly.

"Oh, honey, I'm sorry. She probably just thought you were joking."

Gale coughed. Loudly. She rushed Sheldon out and promised Gale to bring someone over to clean the mess. She ended up sending the boys home after a while and having to stay after her shift to clean things up. But that was okay, because she could get away from Sheldon and the boys and from having to answer all the questions on what had happened. She didn't want to think about what happened. She didn't want to think of how heavy the chandelier was and how she shouldn't have been able to catch it. And yet something was daring her to test it. See if that thing was real, if she really did have that kind of strength and how far would it go. However afraid of the truth, she finally came to the conclusion that facing reality would have to come sooner or later. Whether it was insanity or something worse, she needed to find out. Now.

So Penny determinately walked towards a wooden chair in the deposit's left corner. She orbited it for a while, debating whether or not to go through with it. A few good minutes after, she picked the chair up, her lips pierced into a thin line. She got on her knees and grasped one of its legs firmly with one hand, the other keeping the chair in place. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. This was it. If she could do this, she was some sort of freak, if she couldn't, she was nuts. The outcome didn't appeal to her either way, but it was best to get it over with, while she still felt sane enough.

Another deep breath and she pulled the leg towards herself, mastering all of her strength. She felt the chair drop on the floor, and she opened her eyes, admiring the work on her hands. The leg had come out. It looked noticeably shredded on the end that was previously attached to the chair, yet there was something about it. Just holding it, and remembering how she came to do so in the first place, made her feel powerfully strong. Which, apparently, she was.

She stood up and admired the piece of wood for what felt like an eternity. There was nothing special about it, really, but yet it meant something important. If she could do this, plus the chandelier from earlier, what had caused it? What did it mean, what was she supposed to do with this? What were the limits? But those questions weren't much important right now, because suddenly it all became clear. She felt overwhelmed as the harsh implications of the situation hit her, as if a wave of physical energy went through her body, from the tip of her toes to the back of her head. Feeling a little dizzy she sat down on the floor, still holding onto the chair's leg, now with both hands. That could only mean one thing.

Her life as she knew it was over.

---

Penny's next days passed by her like cloudy fast-forwarded dreams. She didn't pay much attention to anything; too busy trying to convince herself that her epiphany was unfounded while at the same time trying to forget all about it. Naturally, trying to forget it only made it worse. So, she attempted to distract herself by doing things with the boys. She even accompanied them in their laundry, just so she would have somewhere to be instead of home alone, thinking things. Sheldon found that _specially_ annoying, which only made tagging along to his laundry more enjoyable.

She also followed their video game sessions and DVD and TV marathons. They were probably on the sixteenth new series she had discovered with them, when she saw it.

It was a normal Thursday, Thai Food, sitting on the couch between Wolowitz and Sheldon. The TV was on some sci-fi marathon, and she was trying to escape Wolowitz's attempts to put his arm around her, or hold her knee, or generally get close enough to touch. Leaning away from him, caused her to bump on Sheldon occasionally, prompting evil glares from him. But instead of making her shy away, weirdly, the glares made her want to come closer. She would be almost forgetting about her situation if that feeling didn't make her feel so odd.

Oh, and of course if that hadn't been the day she saw the commercial. When the act of the show ended, most of the boys got up for drink refills and other food supplies. Sheldon remained is seat, claiming that since he hadn't timed the commercial breaks he couldn't be certain of the time to return, thus leading to missing the first few seconds of the next act. She was rolling her eyes at that when the screen turned into a yellowish black and white and a man and a woman dressed in outfits from the 50's appear.

She thought it looked fun, like maybe it was a satirical remake of some house utensil publicity. And then she heard his words…Dreams of being another girl, in another time…Can't control your strength…We can help…She gulped. What was she to do? Should she call them? What if they wanted to hurt her? But they couldn't, she thought; she was strong. But still. She needed their help, but she couldn't go to them alone.

She turned to the man sitting on her left. He was staring at the TV, with a far away expression. If anyone could help her figure out what this was and who these people were, he was, he was one of the four smartest boys she knew, and well, he was the only one of them who would take it seriously. And she didn't have any friends in town besides the four of them. Desperately, she grasped his arm tightly, causing him to flinch on her. But his face was contorted in pain, she must have grasped too tightly, she loosened up but kept her hand there and whispered quickly before the boys could come back.

"Sheldon, I need your help. It's important. Can we talk after everyone leaves?"

She sighed in relief when he nodded back, still scared, and rested her back at the couch, smiling at the returning nerds, trying her best to look happy and unconcerned. She didn't feel she was doing a very good job.

---

Penny stood by her doorway, arms crossed over her chest, biting her bottom lip in worry. A beam of light shone through the dim hallway when Sheldon opened his front door and she watched the ground as his shadow appeared, moved and then disappeared again as he turned of his lights and closed the door. He walked towards her, slightly jumping on his feet. He was already in his pajama set for that week day and she couldn't help but notice how much he looked like a giant kid. Maybe that was why she felt so protective of him. He called her name once and she faced his eyes, using all the acting skills she could master to convey her grim state of mind, and to look sweet and innocent instead. It was for professional training purposes, of course. It had nothing to do with him. Or at least that's what she told herself.

"Hey, Sheldon."

"Penny. I'm assuming the matter you which to discuss is of a most urgent nature. Otherwise I would not have agreed to meet in such late hours and in this rather uncomfortable environment."

"Oh. Hum, we could go inside…"

She merely motioned at the door, but he didn't wait for a second invitation, rushing to open it and let himself in and sit in her green chair, the one he had designated his seat. She followed him in, turning on the light switch and shutting the door on her way. She sat on the spot on the couch closest to his seat and folded her hands on her lap, wavering on how to initiate the topic.

Judging by the expectant expression he held, he must have been waiting for her to start. She was grateful, then, for having picked Sheldon to do this. She needed someone with patience, who could just listen, without forcing things to come out of her mouth before she was ready to say them. After another long while of pondering, she finally spoke, deciding that the beginning was just a good point to start as any. So she went from there, telling him everything. Her dreams and how they had affected her. The incidents that made her believe something strange was happening to her, the accident with the chandelier in which she had saved his life, the moment after that on the storage deposit when she broke the chair leg. How she was overwhelmed and certain that all of that meant a big change in her life that she wasn't looking forward to, how she had spent the past few weeks trying to forget all about it and act like it had never happened and how seeing the commercial made her realize that it wasn't going to be possible.

He listened to it quietly for the entire time, focusing his attention carefully on her words, and eventually nodding or frowning in surprise or inquisition whenever the moment was appropriated. Yes, Sheldon had definitely been the right choice, his scientific approach to all things helped her talk now and would help her discover the things she needed after. She picked out the worn out napkin she had used to write down the number from the commercial. After asking Sheldon to help her, she wrote it quickly on her semi-used Thai food napkin before she could forget and folded it on her pocket. She handed it to him then and he read it, half intrigued and half disgusted by the food stains.

"So," she said again eagerly. "What do you think of all this? Should I call them? Do you think you could help me, maybe…Investigate more? I don't know anything about this, really, so it'd be nice to, you know, have you do your science thing."

He handed the napkin back to her, now neatly folded in four and she placed it on her coffee desk, still looking at him, hopeful.

"None of the facts you just described to me can be examined through the eyes of science, Penny."

"You believe me right?" He had to believe, she needed him to believe her. He was her only chance of figuring this out without going nuts. Not that Sheldon should be the indicated person to keep anyone from going nuts, but still, in this case, he was the best she got. Man, her life was sad.

"I don't see any reason for you to be lying, provided this isn't some form of practical joke."

"It's true, I swear! I can prove it, look…" She was about to get up and found something she could spare to break into pieces, but he raised a hand to stop her,

"There is no need. I believe you should call this phone number as soon as possible." He glanced at his watch. "It's around 9am in Glasgow now. I'll retrieve my notebook back here and I can work on some research while you discuss with them."

"Are you sure? I mean…"

"Yes, I'm fairly certain it's the best way to go, given the insufficient lack of data in our hands at the moment." And having said that, he hurried out the door.

Recollecting something important, she ran after him, whispering in the corridor before he could get back to his place,

"Sheldon, wait, I can't afford to call Scotland," she stated, embarrassed.

He glared at her for a moment, but didn't hesitate in saying:

"I'll get our phone, too."

---

A few minutes later, Sheldon was sitting on her kitchen counter, furiously googling everything he could think of and consuming large amounts of diet coke. She sat next to him, holding the phone and toying with a vodka bottle with the other hand. Getting through to Scotland was harder than she thought; the line was constantly busy, and when she'd finally get an answer, somebody would just put her on hold. For people who were so interested in gathering new girls, they didn't seem to be doing a very good job at being reached. She laid the phone down and was about to succumb to alcohol when Sheldon yelled.

"Got it!" Shrieked was probably a more suitable word. He seemed pretty excited about it, too.

"What? What?" She hurried to look over his shoulder, but he turned the notebook to her. It was a webpage with lots of texts over a parchment background and a large banner on top that read, in flaming and blinking red letters, "Slayers".

"I believe you're one of them," he said, clearly happy about his detective skills. But Penny frowned, not so sure.

"Really? I mean, this website looks so amateur…"

"I'm surprised you noticed."

She gave him a mean look and his smile fell.

"Anyway. I believe this page was created by an anonymous new slayer. From what I read, and I should note, I was merely fast reading through…" Of course. "In older times there was only one slayer born into every generation. She alone was to stand against the forces of darkness, mainly vampires. The first slayer was fabricated by men who were seeking for a mean to destroy these. As early as eight years ago, approximately, this rule was changed by the current slayer when she had a witch summon the power into all the previously potential slayers…"

"Wait. Wait. Sheldon, if this happened eight years ago, why am I only getting these things now? No there must be something else. Besides, how can you of all people, even believe…"

But her line of thought and his possible response was cut short by the sudden ringing of the phone, Startled, Penny jumped away from the counter, but Sheldon motioned to it, indicating that she should answer.

"Hello?" she picked it up nervously.

"This is Alyssa Simmons, calling from SHQ, you have been trying to reach the number …"

"Hum, yeah. But I…I mean, I…"

"Are you a late-called?"

"What? I mean, I know it's late to call, but I thought it was morning in Scotland…"

"It is. What I mean is, are you one who was called late?"

Penny looked over at Sheldon confused, only then realizing that he couldn't hear what the woman on the other end of the phone was saying.

"I'm sorry," the woman continued. "What made you call us?"

"I saw the commercial…I…" She looked at Sheldon again, worried, but he smiled reassuringly at her, so she continued, more confident. "I've had the dreams and the strength, I think, it's been happening for about two months now."

"…"

"Are you there?"

"Yes, sorry. Our computers were just able to trace your location and there are definitely signs of power coming from it."

"Huh, I don't really know what that means, so…"

"It means you're one of us. Welcome. If you wish to discover further meanings of your calling, I suggest you speak to our leader at a later time. She always follows up with newcomers and I'll be sure to have her call you. You may be invited to visit us."

"But I…" Penny was upset, because she realized the woman was rambling on about infinite ramifications of her destiny and all the while she hadn't even asked for her name. Clearly this was just the usual procedure for everyone who called. Not that she really should have expected anything special, but still.

"I have another line on hold. I'm sorry. Buffy will get back to you, have a good day."

She heard a friendly male laugh right before the line was cut. Then she sat back down and looked at Sheldon.

"Well?"

"I guess you were right. I didn't understand everything, she was kind of babbling in a hurry, but I think I got something about tracing our location, sensing power, late calling and some leader named Buffy calling me back. But that last part can't be right. Who the hell is named Buffy?"

"Huh." Sheldon nodded and went back to something in his computer. "Well, I suppose you'll find everything out soon enough. They must have rather remarkable technologies, tracing our call from a fixed telephone. And sensing power, I wonder what kind of computer does that…Hum, it'd be fascinating to see that."

He went back to typing and Penny glanced at her window. The blinds were shut, but the sun light coming from the east was starting to fill her living room uninvited.

"Gosh, when did morning come?" She asked with dread, to no one in particular.

"Most likely sometime after dawn."

She smiled and smacked his shoulder lightly.

"Sheldon, was that a joke?"

"Maybe," he said softly, but she noticed the small smile forming on the corner of his lips.

"Well what do we do now, then?"

He looked at his watch. "I suppose any attempts at a good night of sleep have been reduced to futility at this point. I believe we both have to get to work sometime today."

"Oh God. I'll never make it," she cried, resting her head on the hard marble counter.

"Yes, I doubt this will be the day I perform any Nobel Prize worth work tasks either."

"Maybe we should just call in sick."

"Nonsense," he said closing his notebook. "What happens when we actually get sick and have no more sick days left?"

"I'm sorry I disturbed your bedtime so much, Sheldon." She said sincerely, suddenly feeling guilty. "I know how much you value your schedules."

His face muscles twisted a bit with his nervous ticks. Reminding him of it - nice move, Penny.

"It's alright," he gulped. "It was for a good cause. Good Morning, Penny. I expect updates on further events regarding your…situation."

"Yes, of course."

"Very well, then." And as he left, Penny collapsed on the couch, exhausted from both sleep deprivation and large amount of information disposed at her unprepared mind.

---

An hour later, but one that felt like ten seconds, her alarm clock echoed annoyingly from her bedroom, waking her up for work. She tried to cover her head with cushions, but when that didn't work she was forced to get up to turn it off. She made herself move away from the cozy and inviting bed and into the bathroom, to take a shower and get ready for work.

---

Work was a bigger drag than usual but due to her somewhat sleepy state and the occasional waitressing dramas, she could get along without worrying too much about her problems. She wondered how Sheldon was doing. He had a more fulfilling job, so she guessed he was probably happy, slightly drowsy if anything.

When she got back home around 6pm (god, finally), she wasn't expecting to find Leonard's inquisitive look directed towards her. He had his arms crossed and was standing between his apartment door and the stairway. Sheldon was behind him, facing the floor and sheepishly making circles with his foot.

"Hey guys. What's up?" She smiled attempting her best impersonation of chipper innocence.

"Penny," Leonard started carefully. "Someone called us looking for you. It was weird. Sheldon said he knew about it, but they hung up. And he said he couldn't explain without you, so."

"I'm sorry, Leonard, I shouldn't have used your phone, but Sheldon said it was fine, but I…"

"That's fine." Leonard smiled sweetly at her, and continued with his usual eager curiosity for everything involving her life. It was nice when she felt alone and needed someone to talk, but now it felt just kind of clingy. "I'd just like some explanations, that's all."

She looked at Sheldon and his worried eyes met hers. She tried to communicate with him telepathically, asking what to do, but it was futile. Futile? Where did that come from? Maybe geekyness was catching.

"Last night, Sheldon helped me with…something. And I asked to borrow your phone and call someone…"

"At Scotland?"

"Yeah…"

"Penny, I think you should tell him. As you know, I'm not particularly good with deceiving anyway."

She sighed.

"Fine. You're right, we should go inside."

---

After half an hour or so, Penny managed to spill out everything to Leonard, with some occasional assistance from Sheldon. Going over that story was getting tiresome and Leonard wasn't such an easy listener, with his million questions trying to show interest and comfort her and be nice, all he accomplished was to suffocate her. She was too tired for this. Why couldn't they understand? She couldn't do that. She had to sleep. Luckily enough, there'd be no work tomorrow.

When she was finished, Leonard just stared away, amazed and said lamely, "The lady said she'd call back. I offer to help with, you know, anything you need."

"Thanks a lot, Leonard, but right now, all I really need is to get some sleep."

"I second that," Sheldon yawned.

"Right, of course."

Thanking the Gods for the end of that conversation, Penny said a quick good night and went back home for a nice bubble bath and what she hoped would be a nice night of sleep in her warm bed. She ended up dozing off in the bathtub instead. Sheldon's signature knock woke her up a few hours later, rescuing her from yet another dream of battles and monsters and gallons of blood coming from the other girls within her.

She grabbed a blue robe and wrapped around herself, trying to stir the cold away. Her water-wrinkled fingers opened the door to let Sheldon in. He was holding the phone in his left hand, jumping from one foot to the other, Without a word, he gave her the phone and she placed it to her ear, closing her eyes.

"Yes?"

"Penelope?"

"Yes? How do you know my name?"

"You called the slayers headquarters earlier. We know everything about you. I'm returning the call and inviting you to visit us and meet your fellow slayers, Here we'll be able to further discuss your destiny and your job and mission among our sisterhood."

"Huh?"

"We'll be sending you a ticket for the trip."

"I'm sorry, it's just, this is a bit much. I just wanted to understand this thing."

"And I can explain it to you. When you get here."

"I'm sorry. Who are you?"

"I'm Buffy Summers."

Penny opened her eyes wide and glanced at Sheldon, who was waiting her anxiously, piercing his lips together.

"What exactly is that you do?"

"I thought I cleared that up, sorry, it's just the cryptic way of talking to people, part of the secrecy tactic, you know?"

"Was it supposed to be a secret, because I've already told two of my friends?"

"Penelope…"

"Penny."

"Penny, it's fine, you'll learn everything when you get here, I promise. Just wait for the mail with your ticket."

There was silence on the other line for a while and then Penny heard a scream and something heavy smashing something pasty.

"Oh, oops, gotta go. Bye."

She stared at the beeping phone for a while, not sure of what to do next. She had felt rested from the bathtub nap, but now she noticed how much her neck ached from the improper position. Would she have to go to Scotland? Did she want to? Did she really want to learn about her so called destiny? This was all happening too fast. She wasn't sure if she wanted any part in any of this. It sounded too dangerous and dark and if her dreams were any indication of reality, painfully fatal. Finally, Sheldon took the phone from her hand and eyed her questioningly.

"She said I should come to Scotland. She'll send a ticket or something… I can't do this Sheldon."

She turned around and fell flat on the couch, her hands shaking, and she was speaking in that high-pitched voice.

"Hum…There, there?" He tried, coming to stand beside her.

"I just…This is too much, I can't handle it, I don't want to handle it and I don't want to fulfill any mission in any sisterhood…I'm not cut out for this, I'm too young, I'm too…" But she found herself slowly beginning to sob, words lacking and giving their place to tears.

"Penny, you're not seeing the logic at this matter." He stated looking down at her, and she chuckled slightly in between hiccups.

"No, of course not. Why don't you show it to me, then?"

"Well, for one thing you don't have much going for you life right now."

"Thanks a lot, Sheldon."

"What I mean is that you haven't really accomplished anything extraordinary in your twenty-something years of age."

"Is that your idea of cheering up?"

He looked at her intrigued, and she just stared back, upset about his words. He really couldn't tell he was hurting her, could he?

"I'm surprised you don't see it, Penny."

"Don't see what? How awful my life has been? How I'm not able to get a decent job at my chosen career or even a boyfriend who's not a total jerk? How my current job sucks and pays little, having me running really behind on bills? Believe me, Sheldon, I see all that."

"I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about Scotland and your gift. This is your chance to prove that you're worth a lot more than people give you credit for. Quite frankly, more than _I_ gave you credit for."

She stopped her crying, still for a moment and looked up at him, feeling a sudden rush of blood to her brain. Was that what an epiphany felt like? Because, as she looked at Sheldon, she realized something important about him, despite the hurtful words.

"You really believe that, don't you?"

"Of course. And I've done additional research on the slayer legacy this afternoon and there is a remarkable number of successful missions and recognition, even if exclusively among fellow slayers. Common public is naturally clueless."

"I don't get how you're so quick to buy all of this. It's just a bunch of stuff written online."

"And your story, and the chandelier, the commercial, the phone calls. I have an IQ of 187, Penny; it's not easy to fool me. There's plenty of evidence. And as a side note, I've seen enough fantasy stories to understand that this somewhat overwhelming feeling you're experiencing is quite common among strong main characters, it is your mission to overcome them, and I suppose it must be mine to help you."

She smiled softly up at him.

"Oh, honey, you're really into this, aren't you? It's like living into one of those shows you like so much, or comic books."

"Perhaps. But it's also for the sake of humanity. Ordinary people, Penny, they need us. The need me for the amazing scientific discoveries and you for the demonic slaying."

"But aren't there enough girls doing that already…?"

"Don't be silly, that's like saying there are enough theoretical physicists. We are unique individuals."

She felt her smile grow wider and realized her voice was back to normal and her hands weren't shaking anymore. Sheldon had managed to reassure her emotionally. A lot of odd things had happened in the past few months, but that one had just made top of the list. She guessed it wasn't because he was finally growing his emotional quotient, but instead due to his experience in seeing fictional characters go through the same thing, and that thought made her feel less weirded out by it.

"So, I guess you want to come to Scotland with me?"

"If so you wish."

"I do," she added quickly. "And the guys too, I think I'll need all the emotional backup. Besides, you guys are my friends, who else do I have?"

"Huh. I don't see why you would find that absolutely necessary, but…Wait, you mean we should tell Koothrappali and Wolowitz as well?"

She thought it over for a moment, Howard was a jerk most of the time, but she had seen his sweet side and she knew that the group wouldn't survive incomplete. Raj couldn't talk when she was around, but how could she exclude his sweet self? Besides, that meant he was a good listener if she needed and could comfort her without words, which could be very refreshing.

"Yes, I think they should come. I mean if we're going, might as well take the whole gang, right?"

Sheldon nodded with his small smile and left.

---

A week or so after, her ticket had arrived, addressed to Penny, with an impersonal printed invitation note, and a leave date for Sunday. And no return tickets. That freaked her out a little bit, but she convinced herself that all it meant was that she'd be able to decide when to come back for herself. Provided, they let her.

The boys bought the tickets they needed, luckily getting them all for the same flight, and everyone began packing things along. They were all, with the exception of Penny, very excited about this little expedition. After learning her secret, Wolowitz and Raj had come over to offer their help. At the moment, she thought it was the sweetest thing when Wolowitz offered a genuine friendship hug. Of course, she realized her rookie mistake when he tried to feel her up after. She honestly didn't hold herself responsible for the nose bruise he received. He was lucky she held back her super strength and didn't break it. That had him very quiet for a while, until the trip plans started and he started to babble about meeting hot foreign ladies. Penny smiled fondly at the idea that most of the girls they were likely to meet would be just as capable of kicking his ass as she was.

Raj, on the other hand, had merely put a hand on her shoulder and smiled supporting, giving her a sudden rush of warmth towards him, that made her want to hug him and turn him into one of her stuffed bears.

She couldn't share their excitement upon the discovery of a new world or the invitation to be a part of it, mostly because she had never really been that into this genre of fiction and also because she knew that she would be the one to actually have to act in the world. And they didn't know the details of her dreams. Their cheerful state and deluded notions of adventures didn't leave room for them to realize the danger, and she felt guilty for not stopping them from coming, but she couldn't, selfishly, she needed them. She just hoped the trip went by easily and that the geeks didn't turn into a liability at her hands.


End file.
